The Line of Future Events

The Life of Christ

“The Line of Future Events”

Volume Forty

We request only that the original address be left on it, although this is not compulsory.

This volume is based on:-

Matthew 24:1-51; 25:31-46; Mark 13:1-37; Luke 21:5-38.

It is recommended that you read these before you read the book.

The language of the Scripture quotes has been

modernised for easier understanding.

The Life of Christ

“The Line of Future Events”

Volume Forty

ISBN 1-877158-96-8

May 2000

Internet: http://NonConformist.MyChurch.com

The numbers in the brackets refer to verses in Matthew 24.

On the Mount of Olives

Christ's words to the priests and rulers, "Behold, your house is left to you desolate" (Matthew 23:38), had struck terror to their hearts.
They pretended indifference, but the question kept rising in their minds as to the import of these words.

An unseen danger seemed to threaten them. Could it be that the magnificent temple, which was the nation's glory, was soon to be a heap of ruins? The foreboding of evil was shared by the disciples, and they anxiously waited for some more definite statement from Jesus.

Man’s view

As they passed with Him out of the temple, they called His attention to its strength and beauty. The stones of the temple were of the purest marble, of perfect whiteness, and some of them of almost fabulous size. A portion of the wall had withstood the siege by Nebuchadnezzar's army. In its perfect masonry it appeared like one solid stone dug entire from the quarry. How those mighty walls could be overthrown the disciples could not comprehend.

All to go

As Christ's attention was attracted to the magnificence of the temple, what must have been the unuttered thoughts of that Rejected One! The view before Him was indeed
beautiful, but He said with sadness, I see it all. The buildings are indeed wonderful. You point to these walls as apparently indestructible;
but listen to My words: The day will come when "there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down."

Christ's words had been spoken in the hearing of a large number of people; but when He was alone, Peter, John, James, and Andrew came to Him as He sat upon the Mount of Olives.

"Tell us," they said, "when shall these things be?”

“And what shall be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the world?"

Jesus did not answer His disciples by taking up separately the destruction of Jerusalem and the great day of His coming. He mingled the description of these two events.

Had He opened to His disciples future events as He beheld them, they would have been unable to endure the sight. In mercy to them He blended the description of the two great crises, leaving the disciples to study out the meaning for themselves.

A literal and prophetic speech

When He referred to the destruction of Jerusalem, His prophetic words reached beyond that event to the final conflagration in that day when the Lord shall rise out of His place to punish the world for their iniquity, when the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.

This entire discourse of Matthew 24 was given, not for the disciples only, but for those who should live in the last scenes of this earth's history.

Many false christs

Turning to the disciples, Christ said, "Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in My name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many." (v4-5). Many false messiahs will appear, claiming to work miracles, and declaring that the time of the deliverance of the Jewish nation has come. These will mislead many.

Christ's words were fulfilled. Between His death and the siege of Jerusalem many false messiahs appeared.

A dual statement

But this warning was given also to those who live in this age of the world. The same deceptions practised prior to the destruction of Jerusalem have been practised through the ages, and will be practised again.

"And you shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that you be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet." (v6). Prior to the destruction of Jerusalem, men wrestled for the supremacy. Emperors were murdered. Those supposed to be standing next the throne were slain. There were wars and rumours of wars.

"All these things must come to pass," said Christ, "but the end [of the Jewish nation as a nation] is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes,
in different places. All these are the beginning of sorrows." (v7-8).

Christ said, As the rabbis see these signs, they will declare them to be God's judgments upon the nations for holding in bondage His chosen people. They will declare that these signs are the token of the advent of the Messiah.

Be not deceived; they are the beginning of His judgments. The people have looked to themselves. They have not repented and been converted that I should heal them. The signs that they represent as tokens of their release from bondage are signs of their destruction.

Religious persecution

"Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and you shall be hated of all nations for My name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another." (v9-10).

All this the Christians suffered. Fathers and mothers betrayed their children. Children betrayed their parents. Friends delivered their friends up to the Sanhedrin. The persecutors wrought out their purpose by killing Stephen, James, and other Christians. Acts 7:59-60.

Through His servants, God gave the Jewish people a last opportunity to repent.
He manifested Himself through His witnesses in their arrest, in their trial, and in their imprisonment. Yet their judges pronounced on them the death sentence. They were men of whom the world was not worthy, and by killing them the Jews crucified afresh the Son of God. Hebrews 6:6.

In the future

So it will be again. (v9).

The authorities all over the world will make laws to restrict religious liberty. They will assume the right that is God's alone. They will think they can force the conscience, which God alone should control. Even now they are making a beginning; this work they will continue to carry forward till they reach a boundary over which they cannot step. God will interpose in behalf of His loyal, commandment-keeping people.

On every occasion when persecution takes place, those who witness it make decisions either for Christ or against Him. Those who manifest sympathy for the ones wrongly condemned show their attachment for Christ.

Some will give up

Others are offended because the principles of truth cut directly across their practice.

Many stumble and fall, apostatising from the faith they once advocated. Those who apostatise in time of trial will, to secure their own safety, bear false witness, and betray their brothers and sisters. Christ has warned us of this, that we may not be surprised at the unnatural, cruel course of those who reject the light. (v10).

There will be a sign

Christ gave His disciples a sign of the ruin to come on Jerusalem, and He told them how to escape: "When you shall see Jerusalem encompassed [surrounded] with armies, then know that the desolation of it is near. Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the country enter there. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled." (See v15-18).

This warning was given to be heeded forty
years after, at the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD. The Christians obeyed the warning,
and not a Christian perished in the fall of the city. So it will be again.

The Sabbath warning

"Pray you that your flight be not in the winter; neither on the Sabbath day," Christ said.

He who made the seventh-day Sabbath did not abolish it, nailing it to His cross. The Sabbath was not rendered null and void by His death. Forty years after His crucifixion it was still to be held sacred. For forty years the disciples were to pray that their flight might not be on the Sabbath day. (v20).

The last days

From the destruction of Jerusalem, Christ passed on rapidly to the greater event, the last link in the chain of this earth's history, - the coming of the Son of God in majesty and glory.

Between these two events, there lay open to Christ's view long centuries of darkness, centuries for His church marked with blood and tears and agony. Upon these scenes His disciples could not then endure to look, and Jesus passed them by with a brief mention.

"Then shall be great tribulation," He said, "such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." (v21-22).

The long persecutions

For more than a thousand years such persecution as the world had never before known was to come upon Christ's followers. Millions upon millions of His faithful witnesses were to be slain. Had not God's hand been stretched out to preserve His people, all would have perished. "But for the elect's sake," He said, "those days shall be shortened." (v22).

The second coming

Now, in unmistakable language, our Lord speaks of His second coming, and He gives warning
of dangers to precede His advent to the world.
"If any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.”

“Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say to you, ‘Behold, He is in the desert;’ go not forth: ‘behold, He is in the secret chambers;’ believe it not. For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even to the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be [very public]." (v23-27).

The false christs

As one of the signs of Jerusalem's destruction, Christ had said, "Many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many." False prophets did rise, deceiving the people, and leading great numbers into the desert. Magicians and sorcerers, claiming miraculous power, drew the people after them into the mountain solitudes.

But this prophecy was spoken also for the last days.

This sign is also given as a sign of the second advent. Even now false christs and false prophets are showing signs and wonders to seduce His disciples. Do we not hear the cry, "Behold, He is in the desert" from the UFO people? Have not thousands gone forth into the desert, hoping to find Christ? (v23 & 26).

And from thousands of gatherings where men profess to hold communion with departed spirits is not the call now being heard, "Behold, He is in the secret chambers"? This is the very claim that spiritualism puts forth.

But what says Christ? "Believe it not. For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even to the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." It will be plainly seen by all.

The timing of it

The Saviour gives signs of His coming, and more than this, He fixes the time when the first of these signs shall appear: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." (v29-31).

At the close of the great Catholic persecution [after the middle ages], Christ declared, the sun should be darkened, and the moon should not give her light.

Next, the stars should fall from heaven. See p38.

And, as it was, so it will be again, for ALL these things must happen to one generation.

The fig leaves

And He says, "Learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near: so likewise you, when you shall see all these things, know that He is near, even at the doors." Matthew 24:32-33, margin.

Christ has given signs of His coming. He declares that we may know when He is near, even at the doors. He says of those who see these signs, "This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled." (v34).

These signs have appeared once already and are recorded in history. (See page 38). Now we know of a surety that the Lord's coming is at hand. "Heaven and earth shall pass away," He says, "but My words shall not pass away." (v35).